Hassan Khan
This August, The Rubin Report will still air five days a week on YouTube. You’ll still see Dave Rubin’s face. You’ll still hear his voice. But here’s the twist Dave Rubin won’t actually be there. He’ll be on vacation, completely unplugged from the Internet.
Instead, the show will feature a mix of pre-recorded interviews, documentaries and an AI-generated video clone of Rubin.
An AI Dave Rubin, Trained to Think Like Dave Rubin
The AI version of Rubin was created by SkipClass, a startup that trains interactive digital personalities from public figures. Using hundreds of hours of Rubin’s past shows, the AI was fine-tuned to deliver monologues in his trademark style sharp, sarcastic, and unapologetically conservative.
In August, it will be fed fresh news stories and will respond as “Dave” might, mixing political commentary with the kind of blunt, occasionally cheeky shots at progressives his audience knows well. At first, the AI was well, robotic. Early attempts sounded like a Wikipedia entry. “If I’m talking about Gavin Newsom, I’m pretty much going to drop an F-bomb,” Rubin jokes. After more training, the AI started to capture his style much better. “I’m unbelievably impressed with what they’ve put together,” he says.
Why Rubin Is Doing This
For the past eight Augusts, Rubin has taken the month completely offline as a mental reset no social media, no news, no Internet. This time, he wondered: could he still “be on air” without actually being online?
That’s where SkipClass came in. The company has built AI personalities for figures like Deepak Chopra, Reid Hoffman, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Fry. Their platform uses open source and private AI models, layered with their own algorithms and training data, to create lifelike interactive avatars.
Fans will even be able to chat with AI Dave directly on SkipClass’s website though, as TIME found, the visuals still have quirks. The avatar’s cheeks don’t move much, and its forehead creases stay put, but the voice and delivery sound strikingly close to the real thing.
The Risks and Rubin’s Take on Them
Rubin admits there’s a “dystopian” side to this experiment. Could it go horribly wrong? Could AI eventually replace him entirely? “I do in some sense worry about that,” he says. “Of course, we’re all going to be expendable.”
Then there’s the risk of deepfakes AI videos of “him” saying things he doesn’t believe. But Rubin isn’t too concerned. “They can do that when it’s the real me,” he points out, noting that clips of his actual words are sometimes edited to say the opposite of what he meant.
Some fans are already skeptical. When Rubin posted about AI in early July, the comments section filled with concerns one user even wrote: “AI fatigue already at 100%. It only makes me want to cling to Jesus.”
Rubin’s response? “You have to do what you think is right. If that goes horrifically wrong and you get punched in the gut for it, then you can re-evaluate.”
Could AI Dave Become the Future?
Rubin is realistic. When he returns in September, the AI might have completely missed the mark or it could be so accurate that the real Dave Rubin starts to look redundant. Either way, he sees this as a way to test the limits of technology while keeping his channel active during his yearly break.
For Rubin, it’s all about experimenting, learning, and hopefully ushering in AI “in a somewhat mature way.” Whether fans embrace it or reject it, August will be an interesting test: can an AI version of a personality keep an audience hooked, or will viewers be counting down the days until the real Dave is back?
